New Bridge Road
New Bridge Road ( ) is a one-way road located within the Central Area in Singapore. New Bridge Road starts at the Coleman Bridge to the south of the Singapore River and extends into Chinatown within the Outram Planning Area, before joining with Eu Tong Sen Street and Kampong Bahru Road within the Bukit Merah Planning Area. The road runs parallel to Eu Tong Sen Street throughout its entire length, but in the opposite direction. Etymology and history New Bridge Road was built in 1842, after George Drumgoole Coleman's new bridge, Coleman Bridge, had been built in 1840 over the Singapore River. The bridge links Hill Street on the north bank of the Singapore River with New Bridge Road on the south bank of the river. Built in 1842, New Bridge Road got its name from Coleman Bridge, which was then a newly-constructed bridge over the Singapore River. The bridge links Hill Street on the north of Singapore River with New Bridge Road, which lies on the south of the river. Located near New Bridge Road was a large triangular block of two-storey shophouses known as Ellenborough Buildings. These shophouses were built for Tan Tock Seng, one of Singapore’s early pioneers, by John Turnbull Thomson between 1845 and 1847. About half of the block was demolished in 1986 to make way for the approach to the new Coleman Bridge. The rest of the Ellenborough Buildings were demolished in the mid-1990s to make way for the Clarke Quay Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Station. In 1975, flats built by the Singapore Improvement Trust in 1938 in the area were demolished and replaced by the Kreta Ayer Centre, which comprised Kreta Ayer Complex (now Chinatown Complex), Kreta Ayer Community Centre and People’s Theatre. The present Oriental Plaza on New Bridge Road was originally a theatre called the Palacegay, which was the called Toho Gekizyo during the Japanese Occupation (1942–45). The theatre was the first in Singapore to screen Chinese movies with sound in 1927. It was renamed Oriental Theatre in 1946, when the Shaw Brothers bought it after World War II. In the late 1980s, an eight-lane dual-carriageway was constructed to merge Eu Tong Sen Street and New Bridge Road. New Bridge Road, which is situated in the Bukit Pasoh and Kreta Ayer district of Chinatown, was accorded conservation status on 7 July 1989. The Chinese used to call this road sin pa sat ma chu cheng in Hokkien, or "front of the new market police station" and ji ma lo, or "number two horse way". The Hokkiens also refer to it as gu chia chui, meaning "Kreta Ayer". The fruit and vegetable trade found at New Bridge Road and Wayang Street (now a part of Eu Tong Sen Street) was dominated by the Teochews. The Teochews also dominated some sections of the inter-island boat trade, dealing especially with West Borneo and Siam where there were substantial Teochew trading communities. Hence many of the leading Teochew entrepot traders were located around the Singapore River, especially in New Bridge Road, north of Hong Lim Park, and its vicinity, namely the Upper Circular Road, Carpenter Street, Ellenborough Street and Hong Kong Street areas. See also *New Bridge Road Bus Terminal *North Bridge Road *South Bridge Road References *Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2004), Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names, Eastern University Press, ISBN 978-981-210-364-2 Category:Roads in Singapore Category:Bukit Merah Category:Outram, Singapore Category:Singapore River Category:Chinatown, Singapore